


Looking

by celeste9



Category: Temeraire - Naomi Novik
Genre: Angst, Devotion, Dragons, Friendship, Future Fic, Gen, Natural Disasters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-31
Updated: 2015-05-31
Packaged: 2018-04-02 04:31:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4046044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celeste9/pseuds/celeste9
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Laurence cannot be dead. Temeraire simply will not allow it. (futurefic)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Looking

**Author's Note:**

> For the May hc_bingo challenge, which was for a small fandom, using one of your given prompts. I've gone for 'natural disasters', which actually was one of the last options I thought I'd go for! So many thanks to deinonychus_1 and clea2011 for their suggestions and encouragement when I was freaking out at the last minute trying to figure out what I could write, without them I doubt I would have been able to complete this challenge!

Temeraire sometimes thinks the world has a cruel sense of humor.

After everything, after the wars and the battles, after they tried to take Laurence away from him, after Laurence was lost overboard on the Potentate, after all of it, Temeraire thinks a little peace is not too much to ask for. He thinks expecting to keep Laurence, to stay with Laurence, should not be more than he can hope for.

And yet here he is, with Laurence nowhere to be found.

The world has a cruel sense of humor.

It has been five days since the storm. Everywhere Temeraire looks, he sees the damage left behind. Trees torn out by their roots, buildings demolished, roofs poking up from beneath the floodwater. He flies above it all and sees, but cannot find what he is looking for. Who he is looking for.

Temeraire wonders if he is being punished, or if perhaps it is only his own fault. He can never seem to keep Laurence safe, no matter how hard he tries.

 _I have found him before,_ Temeraire reminds himself. _I found him when everyone else insisted he must be dead._ Laurence cannot be dead. Temeraire simply will not allow it. Not now, not after everything they have survived together. Not because of this, a storm, a natural disaster, something they could not fight nor stop.

Laurence always survives. Even when he could not remember who he was (or Temeraire, when he could not remember _Temeraire_ ), he survived. He will find a way, and Temeraire will find him, safe and sound and whole.

 _I have been waiting for you, my dear,_ Laurence will say, and the world will be right again.

Another day passes, and then another, and now it has been a week without Laurence. It is difficult to find anything to eat but Temeraire finds he has little appetite anyway. He eats only enough to keep himself flying. He would be of little use to Laurence if he starved.

He stops whenever he sees anyone, stops to ask if they have seen Laurence. They are mostly troubled and frightened, trying to reclaim their lives from the wreckage wrought by the storm. Temeraire makes them nervous but he is used to that. _We’ve seen no strangers,_ they tell him. _No one could have survived alone._

So Temeraire keeps looking.

He imagines what Iskierka would say if he came back without Laurence, if he managed to get his captain killed. He imagines the expressions on the faces of Laurence’s friends. Mostly he imagines life without Laurence, and that is a fate he simply cannot bear.

Temeraire loses track of time. He travels over ground he knows he has seen before. He feels the despair creeping into his heart but he ignores it; he pushes it away because no good can come of it. Despair will not bring Laurence back to him. Laurence could be hurt, dying, and he needs Temeraire. He _needs_ him, and Temeraire must be there for him. He must.

Laurence has always been there for him, so Temeraire must return the favor. Laurence is everything.

He almost misses the small figure, trudging along alone. The man is dirty and unkempt, his clothes a mess, and he looks very unlike Laurence, always so stiff and proper. Yet it is Laurence, it is, and he is raising his head to watch the path of Temeraire’s flight.

“Laurence! Laurence!” Temeraire calls, and lands rather less gracefully than he would have liked at Laurence’s side. The ground is all mud but Temeraire cannot care, not when Laurence is there, is _right there._ The strong wind is buffeting Laurence and catching in his hair, and Temeraire tries to form a barrier with his body.

He noses at Laurence’s form, checking him for damage. “Are you all right? Are you hurt?”

“Perfectly fine, my dear,” Laurence says, and he sounds tired but his eyes are smiling. He brushes a hand down Temeraire’s snout. “Please refrain from fussing. I am sorry to have frightened you.”

“I knew you would be well,” Temeraire says, because now that Laurence is here the fear that he would not be, that Temeraire’s hope and faith were in vain, is fading fast. Of course Laurence is fine. Temeraire always knew he would be.

“And you? Have you been safe? You seem thin; have you been eating? Are you well?”

“I found you,” Temeraire says, because that is all that matters. Temeraire is as happy as he can be because Laurence is here. “I found you.” He curls around Laurence, thinking that he will never, ever let go again.

**_End_ **

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Searching High and Low (the Loved and Found remix)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4227258) by [misura](https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura)




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